LG

Life is indeed good for LG... their LG Optimus cell phone series are extremely popular. In fact, they recently boasted the sale of over one million LG Optimus LTE worldwide since the device first launched last year.

The Optimus LTE made its international debut in LG's native South Korea last October, before its December invasion of Japan and North America - where it is sold under the brand name of Spectrum at Verizon (where it is available for $199 on contract) and the Nitro HD at AT&T, while Canadians recognize it as the Bell Optimus Eye.

The world's greatest tech show - CES 2012 - kicked off on Monday, January 9th... and will run until Friday January 13th.

With more than four decades of success, the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) reaches across global markets, connects the industry and enables CE innovations to grow and thrive. The show is produced by Consumer electronic Association, the preeminent trade association promoting growth in the $186 billion U.S. consumer technology industry. CEA represents more than 2,000 corporate members involved in the design, development, manufacturing, distribution and integration of consumer electronics products. All profits from CES are reinvested into industry services, including technical training and education, industry promotion, engineering standards development, market research and legislative advocacy.

This year's show is held at the Hilton Casino and Hotel in Las Vegas and will cover more than 1.8 million square feet which is equivalent to 35 American football fields with over 2700 exhibitors and close to 200,000 attendees from across the globe.

Most of the leading smartphone and wireless mobile device (such as tablets) manufacturers and vendors will be unveiling their latest product and technology. In the same breath, these manufacturers will be showcasing their latest in innovative protection solutions... ... stylish top brand bags, sleeves and cases specifically designed to protect your devices from scratches and blemishes. Tough on the outside, sweet on the inside these brand name protection accessories combine complete device coverage with sleek artistic expression.

The following capture the most important CES smartphone and wireless mobile device news and product video overview:

Every brand and company has its shtick, its M.O., its press friendly sound bytes. Google is no different when espousing the virtues of its Google Android operating system at each event they are able to use a soapbox and spread their smartphone evangelism. The main gospel is the Android culture of openness and the lack of limitations is to the benefit of the consumer.

This is great PR spin. And this writer truly loves a good euphemism laced with truth. So, while Android is more open that its competitors, it is comparative. When held up to open-source software like Linux, it is actually quite closed. Hence, a Hollywoodesque Benniffer moniker is bound to catch: Clopen.

At the moment, Google makes the Android OS source code available to companies and individuals to customize to their liking. Very open and transparent, non? Flip side of this coin is the Google mobile suite: Gmail, Android Market, Google Maps, and the long list of “Google” stamped functions. These are closed sourced. The double talk is confusing for customers. Especially when end users purchase a no-Market Android device. Not good PR.

Throw in the custom skins and fragmentations used by the varied carriers and manufacturers and there is a varying standard of quality for the smartphones bearing the Android and Google names. This is damaging to a brand. In fact, Marketing Land’s Danny Sullivan wrote that these quality control discrepancies are resulting in customers with outdated devices in their hands. This particular quirk can be addressed with accessories (protective cases, upgraded screen skins etc), but what is under the hood is harder to resolve.

Case in point: the latest Android OS release, Ice Cream Sandwich. Various manufacturers have hedged and speculated about when the update would be available and on what phones and what carriers (at least with an unlocked phone, the customer will have more say in to get the latest Android OS). As of right now, only one physical device has the update on it. The flagship Android phone, Galaxy Nexus. Newer devices like the DROID RAZR, DROID Bionic, and the Rezound should see the update later in 2012, but there are many others like the LG Revolution (launched only 7 months ago) that will never get the ICS upgrade treatment because of the carrier (please see above note about unlocked phones!).

Luckily for customers, the Open Handset Alliance which encompasses major US players (LG, HTC, Motorola, T-Mobile, Verizon, Sprint, and AT&T to name a few) which has pledged with Google to bring an end to fragmentation and bring the latest Android OS to devices if the smartphone release is 18 months old or younger.

With the big mobile conference in Las Vegas this coming February that is certainly going to drum up a big buzz for the upcoming 2012 device releases; to this end, you may get inundated in the coming months about what the year will bring. With great mobile innovations like dual-core processors and 4G LTE brought to market in 2011, this year in review was impressive. While hard to trump, the 2012 line-up is being touted as bigger and better. Here is a snapshot of unlocked cell phones to be dialed into.

LG Optimus LTE

LG is looking to break into the 2012 smartphone market with vengeance as some of the LG Cell Phone lineupe rocking the latest in Android OS: 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich). Using the power of social media, the manufacturer announced via Facebook that in the second quarter of 2012 a number of their LG Optimus cell phones (the Optimus LTE, Optimus 2X Prada, Optimus Sol, Eclipse and myTouch Q) would have shiny and new Android platforms. Hopefully they will give us more information on up and coming accessories to keep pace with the new technologies.

Apple iTunes annual giveaways

Unlike the RIM app giveaway that ended December 31st, Apple is continuing their annual download giveaway through January 6th. The free music downloads were kicked off by Coldplay tracks and videos (no surprise as they feature materials from the Apple sponsored festival where the band performed). With the savings on downloads, customers will have a bit more pocket change to invest in an upgraded screen protector or jazzier protective cases and skins.

Santa Prefers Apple

With sales numbers coming in, the eCommerce company, RichRelevance, has released numbers that indicate that iPhones and iPads accounted for a whopping 92% of mobile purchases made this December. Let's not forget the consumer appeal for other Apple devices including MacBook and iPod This is a significant uptick from the numbers released in April 2011 by the same eCommerce firm. A mere eight months ago, the Cupertino based company made up 88% of non-desktop online shopping. One has to wonder how much that would go up if Apple made unlocked smartphones more available to its adoring public.

There are those moments where no news is good news. This is generally not the case in the technology world; in particular within mobile technology market space... which is constantly evolving, improving, and innovating to keep pace with a tech savvy and tech hungry consumer base. A market base growing at an exponential rate as unlocked cell phones becomes more and more available to consumers in India, Africa and China. Thankfully the advent of tablets and a plethora of mobile accessories such as cases, skins, screen protectors, desktop chargers as well as Bluetooth Headsets keep our little hands busy while awaiting the latest smartphone relases.

With that in mind, the jury is still out on the lack of an LG Windows Phone release in the United States in 2011.... the last LG Windows Phone seen state side was the Quantum back in 2010. This handset wasn’t widely popular, perhaps because it was not available as an unlocked smartphone, instead it was tied to a carrier exclusive contract with AT&T. Discover a massive selection of SD Micro Memory cards. Extend your mobile device memory to hold a huge inventory of images, songs and documents.

Trickles of a new release for the Windows OS are tickling the imaginations of the mobile world with a device going by the moniker LG Fantasy. As with any gossip mill, speculated details are flying with scant solid evidence or manufacturer announcements to give credence and weight to the words. Discover XMI Speakers; uncompromised sound quality and a revolutionary design accentuating today's interactive lifestyle. In addition, earpieces and headsetscombine sophisticated style and precision engineering that deliver brilliant sound for your total listening pleasure.

The most likely sounding is that is has a four inch IPS display and this holds more veracity thanks to the leaked image of the smartphone. This image is indeed blurry (as can be seen in the picture above), but it is pretty evident that the handset has either a 5 megapixel or 8 megapixel camera. This seemingly harmless detail gives more heft to the talk that the Fantasy will join the ranks of Windows phones because this megapixel screen is what current Windows Phone users have with the 7.5 OS (aka Mango).

What is markedly less clear is whether this particular device will see the light of American soil for its debut, but it is likely that a launch will occur sometime in 2012. LG is smart to keep up guessing and ramping up the free PR to fill the void between its Windows Phone releases, but will be sure to keep the juiciest details for the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in February. Checkout the latest in mobile device accessories.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are typically two of the biggest shopping days of the year, and as consumers continue to use mobile devices more frequently to make online purchases, 2011 is shaping up to be huge for online shopping. A new study from ad network InMobi found that an estimated 60 million people will use a mobile device for online bargain-hunting this coming Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and 21 million of them will make purchases on their devices and associated mobile accessories.

Typical deals are shoppers looking for

A new survey found that Black Friday bargain hunters will be on the lookout for tablets more so than any other mobile device next Friday. Among those polled, 32% said they would be hunting for a Black Friday deal on a tablet and tablet accessories this holiday season. 25% of respondents said they would scout for deals on HDTVs, 24% said they would be looking for deals on laptops and laptop accessories with the remaining 19% plan to hunt for deals on smartphones and cell phone accessories this Black Friday.

Holiday Gift Wishes

When asked about the one gadget respondents would most like to receive as a gift this holiday season, tablets and tablet accessories dominated yet again. Apple’s iPad and Amazon’s Kindle Fire were tied atop the list, each having been named by 10% of those surveyed. Smartphones and related cell phone accessories filled the No.2 spot with 9%, HDTVs were mentioned by 8% of respondents and laptops and digital cameras were tied with 6%. Only 4% of those polled said that an Amazon Kindle eReader was their ideal gift.

The Google Android operating system is used by many manufacturers as the default software for the top of the line mobile phone offerings. The beauty of Android is that it is light and can be used on less than powerful devices. Of the phone available, we’ve selected what we consider the best Android phones for those on a budget but want the experience of a smartphone.

Unlocked LG Optimus One

Most high end Android phone do not do so well on the battery life side of things. One of the benefits of a lower end phone is the battery consumption needed to perform various tasks. The Unlocked LG Optimus One has a 1500mah battery that is capable of holding a charge of for days and giving you 48 hours of talk time. Other features of the phone including a 3.2 inch screen display as well as a 600mhz cpu processor. You also have the ability to upgrade the phone to the Android 2.3 operating system.

Unlocked HTC Wildfire S

Next up is the HTC Wildfire S unlocked that has several enhancements to it predecessor the HTC Wildfire. You’ll enjoy 600mhz processor, a higher resolution screen with sharper images, a five mega pixel camera, and Wifi / 3G connections. The size of the phone is small and should be a favorite for those who want the power of the HTC Desire S but don’t want to shell out the big bucks.

Unlocked Samsung Galaxy Mini

Last but not least is the unlocked Samsung Galaxy Mini that is part of Galaxy family that has been so popular with Samsung. The screen size is 3.14 inches and comes with the Android 2.2 OS installed. The phone supports a MicroSD memory card and also has a rugged feel to it able to withstand a few drops.

There you have, our top 3 picks of affordable Android based phones. You’ll enjoy the experience of the Android operating system without putting to much of a dent in your pocket.

The unlocked LG (Thrill 4G) is a device that has been highly anticipated by many. It has a number of great features into a comment at LG tries to regain market share that they had previously admitted disappointing efforts. The company has made it a real goal of theirs to ensure that they are able to put together excellent devices that users will want to have in their pockets. The LG Thrill 4G is one of a number of devices that they have released that seems to reach and maybe even surpasses the expectations of their users.

The device comes with a 4.3 inch 800 x 480 pixel screen that is able to display bowl two-dimensional and three-dimensional content on the fly. It weighs a total of 5.9 ounces, and is comparable to many of the higher end smart phones that are currently out there.

The device will also run on Android 2.2, an operating system that has been highly popular. AT&T has also promised that the software will be available on the Android 2.3 gingerbread operating system pending an update. The operating system runs smoothly on the device would seem to have the specs to handle it and is one of the most seamless releases that the company has made. With releases like this, it is clear that LG will be able to climb back into the thick of the industry, especially when they’re interesting use of the 3D technology. Overall the unlocked LG ( Thrill 4G ) is a highly powered, high speed device that is able to deliver you high quality content at a price that makes a lot of sense. it also comes complete with a 2-D and 3D camera that allows you to capture five megapixel photos and also video and 1080p HD. All of the features that are brought to the table by the LG Thrill 4G make it a very complete device that has received rave reviews.

The unlocked LG Optimus Black is a phone that has received a lot of attention over the course of the last two years. There are number of benefits that are provided by the phone, then you should always look to look into the benefits are provided when you unlock the phone. There are a number of reasons why the LG Optimus Black has become very popular within the unlocking community. First of all, the phone is very slim weighing only 3.8 g. This is definitely on the lower end of the smart phone waits, and you can bet that the phone is very popular for this reason. The design of the phone is excellent, and the curves usually make it very comfortable to hold and dependent on the phone.

Running on the latest and greatest software, the phone has become very popular in the short amount of time. There was a lot of hype that was built for the LG Optimus Black, and so far it has lived up to it. Very vibrant displays one of the things that have brought many people to the device. You can bet that the device will continue to be popular in the unlocking community. There are number of benefits that are provided to you when you decide to unlock your phone. First of all, you will gain access to a larger array of hats and marketplaces that you would not normally be able to install on the phone. Secondly, you will be able to use it with any carrier that you desire, meaning that you will not be hamstrung by the limitations that have been placed on the device previously.

At the very least, you can bet that the device will continue to gain popularity over the course of the next few years, and could eventually lead to the device receiving the sequel device, which would be very popular within the unlocking community. If you’re going to unlock your LG Optimus Black make sure that you read the guides and reviews on how to sew to ensure that you do not mess anything up along the way.

The LG Optimus 2X unlocked is a wonderful device that is received well in most circumstances. You can bet that the LG Optimus IIx is going to continue to be a popular phone moving forward. Being built around a dual core processor, the LG Optimus 2X is on a higher end Android devices. The dual core processor makes it one of the top performing devices within its class for its price range. Although many consider the unlocked LG Optimus 2X to be a midrange phone, it really performs more like a high-end phone. It continues to be a top-of-the-line device that is hard to match in most circumstances. The design of the device is great, and the sloping glass of the display gives it a very unique look. It does resemble some of the previous LG Optimus devices, but does have a number of things that set it out. First of all, one of the biggest draws to the device for many users has been the HDMI output. Using the HDMI output will make the phone very easy to use in conjunction with a television set.

The Tegra 2 processor that is using the phone as top-of-the-line is known as one of the best in the industry. Isn’t that the phone will continue to be a top-of-the-line device for quite some time moving forward. It will be interesting to see how the phone continues to gain a following in the future.

In all, there are a number of things to like about the device. First of all, it has an eight megapixel camera, and that’s full megapixels, making it one of the best cameras built into a smart device in the mobile industry today. The high 1080 P. video that can be captured from the video camera also sets the device apart. In all, the unlocked LG Optimus 2x elevates the benchmark for hardware and mobile devices. It is a top-of-the-line device that is easy to use, and should be able to meet your needs moving forward.